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Petah Coyne
b. 1953

Petah Coyne b. 1953

  • Biography
  • Works
  • Select Exhibitions
  • Press
  • Publications
  • Contact Form
  • Documents
  • Petah Coyne is a contemporary American sculptor and photographer. Since the 1980s, Coyne has received critical acclaim for using intricate,...

    Untitled #1379 (The Doctor's Wife) (detail), 1997-2018. Photo: Christopher Burke Studio.

    Petah Coyne is a contemporary American sculptor and photographer. Since the 1980s, Coyne has received critical acclaim for using intricate, unorthodox material—trees, human hair, scrap metal, wax, silk flowers, religious statuary, and taxidermy—to create sculptures that are both precise in their attention to detail and baroque in their emotional range. Literature, film, art history, and the depths of an individual’s soul are all springboards for Coyne’s incessant and unrelenting imagination. In Coyne’s hands, materials, like our lived experiences, are endlessly re-purposed and reborn into something new.

  • "I think the only way for an artist to know or understand anything is to make work almost from a blind spot, and what you produce speaks to you: and as you get older, you know it more clearly."
    —Petah Coyne

  • Coyne's sculptures and photographs have been the subject of more than 30 solo museum exhibitions. Her work resides in numerous...
    Untitled #1379 (The Doctor's Wife), 1997-2018. Photo: Christopher Burke Studio.

    Coyne's sculptures and photographs have been the subject of more than 30 solo museum exhibitions. Her work resides in numerous permanent museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California; Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA, Finland; and many others. She is the past recipient of grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, Anonymous was a Woman, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

    Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1953, the artist currently lives in New York City.

    Download CV
    Artist website
  • Petah Coyne Untitled #1383 (Sisters—Two Trees), 2013–2023  Installation view at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Photo: Petah Coyne (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Petah Coyne, Untitled #1551 (Color of Heaven), 2021–2023, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Courtesy the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    The Sky’s the Limit, installation view, 2023; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; Photo by Kevin Allen Photography. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Petah Coyne and Kathy Grove, The Real Guerrillas: The Early Years, Emma Amos / Zora Neale Hurston, 2015-2024. Installation view: Petah Coyne: How Much A Heart Can Hold, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2024. Photo: Eric Baillies. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Installation view, Petah Coyne: How Much A Heart Can Hold, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2024. Photo: Eric Baillies. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Petah Coyne: Everything That Rises Must Converge, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA, 2010. Photograph: Elisabeth Bernstein. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

    Installation view of Untitled #1383 (Sisters—Two Trees), 2013–2023 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

  • Works
    • Untitled #1568 Zora Neale Hurston , 2023-24

      Untitled #1568 Zora Neale Hurston , 2023-24

    • Untitled #1567 (The Woman in the Dunes), 2023

      Untitled #1567 (The Woman in the Dunes), 2023

    • Untitled #1411 (Jane Austen), 2016-19

      Untitled #1411 (Jane Austen), 2016-19

    • Untitled #1408 (The Lost Landscape), 2015-18

      Untitled #1408 (The Lost Landscape), 2015-18

    • Untitled #1379 (The Doctor's Wife), 1997-2018

      Untitled #1379 (The Doctor's Wife), 1997-2018

    • Untitled #1289 (The Year of Magical Thinking), 2008-17

      Untitled #1289 (The Year of Magical Thinking), 2008-17

    • Petah Coyne and Kathy Grove, The Real Guerrillas: The Early Years AKA Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 2015-2016
      Petah Coyne and Kathy Grove, The Real Guerrillas: The Early Years AKA Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 2015-2016
    • Untitled #1388 (The Unconsoled) #1, 2013-14

      Untitled #1388 (The Unconsoled) #1, 2013-14

    • Untitled #1375 (No Reason Except Love: Portrait of a Marriage), 2011-12

      Untitled #1375 (No Reason Except Love: Portrait of a Marriage), 2011-12

  • Select Exhibitions

    • Petah Coyne: How Much A Heart Can Hold, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison
      Exhibitions

      Petah Coyne: How Much A Heart Can Hold

      Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison 9 September - 23 December 2024 Museum & Public Exhibitions
    • Petah Coyne: Having Gone I Will Return
      Exhibitions

      Petah Coyne: Having Gone I Will Return

      13 September - 27 October 2018 Galerie Lelong Exhibitions
    • Petah Coyne: Vermilion Fog
      Exhibitions

      Petah Coyne: Vermilion Fog

      24 October - 13 December 2008 Galerie Lelong Exhibitions
  • Press

    • Hyperallergic, Petah Coyne’s Maximalist Art Lays Bare Women’s Oppression
      Press

      Hyperallergic

      Petah Coyne’s Maximalist Art Lays Bare Women’s Oppression October 8, 2024
    • The Brooklyn Rail, In conversation: PETAH COYNE with Jonathan Goodman
      Press

      The Brooklyn Rail

      In conversation: PETAH COYNE with Jonathan Goodman October 3, 2018
    • The New York Times, Studio visit: An Artist Who Champions and Channels Female Voices
      Press

      The New York Times

      Studio visit: An Artist Who Champions and Channels Female Voices September 13, 2018
    • Wall Street Journal, Elusive Yet Expressive
      Press

      Wall Street Journal

      Elusive Yet Expressive September 4, 2010
  • Publications

    • Petah Coyne: Having Gone I Will Return, Jenni Sorkin
      Publications

      Petah Coyne: Having Gone I Will Return

      Jenni Sorkin
      Published by Galerie Lelong & Co., New York ISBN: 978-0-9671747-0-9
    • Petah Coyne: Everything That Rises Must Converge, Joseph C. Thompson, Denise Markonish, A.M. Homes, et al.
      Publications

      Petah Coyne: Everything That Rises Must Converge

      Joseph C. Thompson, Denise Markonish, A.M. Homes, et al.
      Published by Yale University Press ISBN: 0300167709
    • Petah Coyne: Vermilion Fog, Ann Wilson Lloyd
      Publications

      Petah Coyne: Vermilion Fog

      Ann Wilson Lloyd
      Published by Charta and Galerie Lelong ISBN: 8881586843
    • Petah Coyne: Above and Beneath the Skin, Louis Grachos, Douglas Dreishpoon, Nancy Princenthal, et al.
      Publications

      Petah Coyne: Above and Beneath the Skin

      Louis Grachos, Douglas Dreishpoon, Nancy Princenthal, et al.
      Published by Albright-Knox Art Gallery ISBN: 188745702X
    • Petah Coyne, David S. Rubin
      Publications

      Petah Coyne

      David S. Rubin
      Published by Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art ISBN: 1880353024
  • Contact Form

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  • Documents
    View works. Petah Coyne, Untitled #1408 (The Lost Landscape), 2015-18
    Untitled #1408 (The Lost Landscape), 2015-18
    View works
    No documents available.

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T +33 1 45 63 13 19

F +33 1 42 89 34 33
info@galerie-lelong.com

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